Original in Catalan: Els castells
People climbing on top of people until they build towers six, seven, nine, even ten storeys high. And at the very top, a child.
These are the castells. They were born in Valls: the first document is from 1712, when the Ball de Valencians (a dance from the Valencian Country, a cousin of the muixeranga of Algemesí) ended with a small human tower three or four storeys high. The people of Valls kept adding height until the tower stopped being the end of the dance and stood on its own.
How it works: at the bottom, the pinya, dozens of people who hold, push towards the centre and act as a mattress if everything falls. On top, the trunk, storey by storey. And at the top, the enxaneta, a child who crowns the castell by raising a hand. All of it under the castellers’ motto: strength, balance, courage and good sense.
Since 1980, every two years, the best colles compete at the Tarragona Castells Competition (the first one was held in 1932). And in 2010 UNESCO declared them Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
Trusting the person below you that much. What a metaphor.